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Pramoedya Ananta Toer

    6. únor 1925 – 30. duben 2006

    Pramoedya Ananta Toer byl významný indonéský autor, jehož díla sahají od románů a povídek po eseje a historické práce. Jeho psaní, často politicky nabité, se setkávalo s cenzurou v jeho rodné zemi. Navzdory pronásledování a uvěznění se stal mezinárodním symbolem boje za svobodu projevu a lidská práva. Jeho literární odkaz spočívá v pronikavém zobrazení indonéské společnosti a historie.

    Pramoedya Ananta Toer
    All That Is Gone
    This Earth of Mankind
    House of Glass
    Child of All Nations
    Footsteps
    Na břehu řeky Bekasi
    • Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s transcendent novels have become part of the world literary canon, but it is his short fiction that originally made him famous. The first full-size collection of his short stories to appear in English, All That Is Gone draws from the author’s own experiences in Indonesia to depict characters trying to make sense of a war-torn culture haunted by colonialism, among them an eight-year-old girl soon to be married off by her parents for money and an idealistic young soldier who witnesses the savage beating of a man accused of being a spy. Though violence and brutality pervade these tales, there is present throughout a profound sense of compassion—an extraordinary combination of despair and hope that gives All That Is Gone rare power and beauty.

      All That Is Gone2005
      4,0
    • The King, the Witch, and the Priest

      • 128 stránek
      • 5 hodin čtení

      "Centuries ago, there was, in the eastern part of the island of Java, a kingdom by the name of Daha..." So begins The King, the Witch and the Priest, a fable with contemporary allure that is based on the story of Calon Arang, a Javanese legend dating from the twelfth century. As tradition tells it, Calon Arang was a powerful witch from the village of Girah who had a beautiful daughter named Ratna Manggali who could find no husband. No man would have her for fear of her mother. Calon Arang became so angered by her daughter's plight that she spread pestilence throughout the kingdom. To deal with the problem, King Erlangga ordered his most respected priest, Empu Baradah, to get rid of Calon Arang. This proved to be no easy task as Calon Arang owned a book containing all the secrets of sorcery.

      The King, the Witch, and the Priest2002
      3,6
    • The Mute's Soliloquy

      A Memoir

      • 400 stránek
      • 14 hodin čtení

      From the author of the Buru Quartet and one of the greatest writers of our time comes a remarkable memoir of imprisonment and survival. In 1965, Pramoedya Ananta Toer was detained by Indonesian authorities and eventually exiled to the penal island of Buru. Without a formal accusation or trial, the onetime national hero was imprisoned on Buru for eleven years. He survived under brutal conditions, somehow managing to produce his masterwork, the four novels of the Buru Quartet , as well as the remarkable journal entries, essays, and letters that comprise this moving memoir. Reminiscent of the work of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Mute's Soliloquy is a harrowing portrait of a penal colony and a heartbreaking remembrance of life before it. With a resonance far beyond its particular time and place, it is Pramoedya's crowning achievement--a passionate tribute to the freedom of the mind and a celebration of the human spirit. "A haunting record of a great writer's attempt to keep his imagination and his humanity alive."-- The New York Times Book Review "A story too vast and serious to ignore."-- San Francisco Chronicle (front page review)

      The Mute's Soliloquy1999
      4,4
    • Tales from Djakarta

      • 288 stránek
      • 11 hodin čtení

      Tales from Djakarta is a collection of thirteen short stories written between 1948 and 1956 - a period of bitter transition from the revolutionary era to the beginnings of military rule in Indonesia. These stories not only give us a taste of Pramoedya's earlier writings, but also lead us on a tragic tour through mid-century Jakarta with her downtrodden residents as our guides.

      Tales from Djakarta1999
      4,0
    • House of Glass

      • 388 stránek
      • 14 hodin čtení

      This is the 4th, and final novel about Minke, but this one is narrated by Pangemanann, a native policeman assigned to monitor Minke and his followers.

      House of Glass1997
      4,3
    • Index on Censorship - 25: Lost Words

      The Stories They Wouldn't Let You Read

      • 192 stránek
      • 7 hodin čtení

      This collection of fiction from around the world is concerned with censorship taboos and includes work from writers who remain censored, exiled or imprisoned. It includes writing by Willaim Trevor, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Aicha Lemsing and Breyten Breytenbach.

      Index on Censorship - 25: Lost Words1996
    • As the world moves into the twentieth century, Minke, one of the few European-educated Javanese, optimistically starts a new life in a new Betawi. With his enrollment in medical school and the opportunity to meet new people, there is every reason to believe that he can leave behind the tragedies of the past. But Minke can no more escape his past than he can escape his situation as part of an oppressed people under a foreign power. As his world begins to fall apart, Minke draws a small but fervent group around him to fight back against colonial exploitation. During the struggle, Minke finds love, friendship, and betrayal—with tragic consequences. And he goes from wanting to understand his world to wanting to change it. Pramoedya's full literary genius is again evident in the remarkable characters that populate the novel—and in his depiction of a people's painful emergence from colonial domination and the shackles of tradition.

      Footsteps1996
      4,4
    • The girl from the coast

      • 288 stránek
      • 11 hodin čtení

      ramoedya's The Girl from the Coast tells the story of a beautiful young woman from a fishing village who finds herself in an arranged marriage with a wealthy aristocrat. Forced to leave her parents and home behind, she moves to the city to become the 'lady' of her husband's house. Pramoedya's breathtaking literary skill is evident in every word of this book, one of his classic works of fiction made especially poignant because it is based on the life of his own grandmother.

      The girl from the coast1996
      3,9
    • Child of All Nations

      • 352 stránek
      • 13 hodin čtení

      In Child of All Nations, the reader is immediately swept up by a story that is profoundly feminist, devastatingly anticolonialist—and full of heartbreak, suspense, love, and fury. Pramoedya immerses the reader in a world that is astonishing in its vividness: the cultural whirlpool that was the Dutch East Indies of the 1890s. A story of awakening, it follows Minke, the main character of This Earth of Mankind, as he struggles to overcome the injustice all around him. Pramoedya’s full literary genius is evident in the brilliant characters that populate this world: Minke’s fragile Mixed-Race wife; a young Chinese revolutionary; an embattled Javanese peasant and his impoverished family; the French painter Jean Marais, to name just a few.

      Child of All Nations1994
      4,4